"One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure"

Pegasus

When artists pick through scrap and trash, piquing their creative juices, we love to see the transformation into industrial art.  Hasan Novrozi is another of our metal favorites who was born in the Czech Republic in 1981.

An aficionado of cars, an occasional motorcycle racer and full time bike mechanic, Novrozi loves working with steel and learned that he loves welding the scrap parts together more.

The intricacies of the machinework brings to life bone structure, muscle, feather and hair.

Novrozi wanted his Pegasus to evoke wonder and awe, as the steed of Poseidon (the god of the sea) would command.

We look forward to seeing some of Novrozi's pieces exhibited in the United States and Canada.

Click below for a slideshow of Novrozi's work. 

.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•٠·˙.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Farm Percusion (Study 7: Midwest Engine + 1935 Dobro 27)

Enjoy!

Dr. LeGear - World's Largest Percheron (1903)

Percheron Gelding, Dr. LeGear

St. Louis, Missouri

The Final Days of The Transcontinental Travels of The Caravan

Gerard Paagman and his family (in their trademarked orange attire) from Invermere, British Columbia, with their House of the Friesians horses, joined up with friends in Murrieta, California. On November 1, 2014, this small group of friends and their horses set out for the east coast.  They were joined along with the way by other passionate travelers, and together they made their way across the southern United States. Some would join up for only a weekend or a set distance getting to have a brief taste of the experience only to make them want more.  On March 14, 2015, with a lot of congratulatory fanfare, the Caravan arrived at the beautiful Grand Oaks Resort in Weirsdale, Florida, the weekend before the start of the popular Live Oak International CDE in nearby Ocala.

The weather was somewhat kind to the group traveling in the dead of winter; temperatures ranged some 40-50 degrees as they traveled along the way.

The Paagmans' Friesians were the flashy-working stars of the Caravan who drew the attention of many as each put in their own honest-day's work.  In the fall of 2012, nine of the family's much-loved Dutch-bred horses headed to the southeast to film their part in "the Parade of Tributes" for the movie: The Hunger Games:  Catching Fire" in Atlanta, Georgia.

The kindnesses experienced by The Caravan from overnight hosts, as well as entire towns did not go unnoticed.  Holiday parades and celebrations that were taking place as the group made their way across the U.S. immediately opened their arms for their participation.  Invitations for dinner, overnighting and educational show-and-tells for local school children made this journey a heartfelt experience for everyone.

The video above catches some of the activities of The Caravan's final days.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

•.¸✽✽¸.•

Eaglesfield Eagle Eyeing 2015

It's that time of year again for eagle eyeing via webcam in the southeastern United States at Berry College. The nest is situated in eagle-eye view of Berry's main entrance and the parking lot of their athletic and recreation center. The eagles do not migrate due to plentiful food available from nearby lakes, and the Oostanaula River.  In 2013, the eagle couple successfully produced two eaglets; 2014, one eaglet, and for 2015, we welcomed the hatching of an eaglet on February 13th and another on February 15th.  Click on the photo below to access the live eagle webcam, day or night, to check on the progress of these beautiful babes.

The term for "Eagle" is derived from Latin: aquila by way of French: aigle . . . which, through other derivatives, means "dark-colored, swarthy, or blackish" as a reference to the bird's plumage  . . . or fromaquilo, meaning "north wind." Thus, our name "Eaglesfield" fits quite nicely given all the black horses and north winds we are fortunate enough to experience.  

.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•٠·˙.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Keiser's Percherons (1909)

The Iconic "Georgia Green" is 100 Years Old

1915 Patent Coca-Cola Contour Bottle, 1916

Collection of and (c) The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company put out a call for a new bottle design in 1915.  The Root Glass Company is located in Terra Haute, Indiana. Root received the Coca-Cola's brief, and President Chapman J. Root sent bottle designer, Earl R. Dean, and auditor, Clyde Edwards, to a local library to get their creative juices flowing.  

The two gentlemen believed that the coca leaf and kola nut were two main ingredients in Coca-Cola, and sought to find images of these items.  They were not successful.  However, they did stumble upon an illustration of a cocoa pod in the Encyclopaedia Britannica . . . the pre-internet source of all information.   Even though cocoa is not an ingredient of Coca-Cola, Root Glass utilized its pod-shape and ribbed exterior into their original bottle design.

Photo Credit:  Carl Frank/Photo Researchers

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana was the winner of the 1915 bottle competition. This distinctive and unique package for Coca-Cola was developed into the recognizable, narrower form and patented in November 1915 (top photo, above), and was put into production in 1916.  

To celebrate the birth of one of the world's most recognized icons 100 years ago, an exhibition opened on February 28, 2015, at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, home of The Coca-Cola Company. 

Ansel Adams in a Truck (1953)
Artist:  Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)
Collection of Joyce Linker

(c) 1953, 2015 Imogen Cunningham Trust

The second floor of the High Museum features three main areas: Design History of the Bottle; Pop Art, featuring more than 15 works by Andy Warhol; and Photography, tracking the iconic Coca-Cola bottle within the ever-changing cultural landscape of 20th and 21st century America.  This exhibition closes October 4, 2015.

Three Coke Bottles (1962)
Artist:  Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Silkscreen, ink, and graphite on linen
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. 1998.1.20
(c) 2015 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

The term "Georgia Green" was used to name these famous Coca-Cola contour bottles until 1956, tipping the hat to Coke's home state.  The green tint of the bottles was caused by impurities of the glass with iron oxide.  It seemed that it was too expensive at the time to use quartz sand that is free of impurities or it was not a technical standard to add dye removers.    

Click above to visit the efforts to build the exhibition, 

The Coca-Cola Bottle:  An American Icon at 100

High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

Adrian Landon's Galloping Mechanical Horse

Mechanical Horse

Artist:  Adrian Landon (1989 -     )
Current Exhibition:  The Winter Equestrian Festival

Wellington, Florida
Photo Courtesy:  AdrianLandon.com

Adrian Landon of  Brooklyn, New York, sculpts to express his urge to reconnect with his family heritage with his favorite subject of inspiration, horses.  Landon's father and grandfather were expert horsemen. His grandfather commanded the French military training establishment at Saumur, The Armoured Cavalry Branch Training School.

Photo:  Saumur - École de Cavalerie - Caserne grille by Pymouss

Landon grew up in New York City and attended the Lycee Francais de New York.  After a year of industrial design at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and traveling all over the United States, he returned to New York in 2009 to join artists at the Arts Students League.

Cheval en Bronze

Photo:  Valerie Penven

His method of his sculpting is known as "repousse" where flat pieces of sheet metal are hand forged with anvil and hammer.

Galloping Horse 2

Since he began his work in 2010, Landon has sculpted more than 10 equine pieces, and spent more than a year planning on how to make the horse "real."  Click the video below to see his "real" kinetic Mechanical Horse galloping along (happily) right now in the warm weather of Wellington, Florida.  [You may want to take advantage of full screen viewing by clicking the lower right corner of the video.]

Mechanical Horse

.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•٠·˙.•°*”˜☆˜”*°•.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

19th Century Romulus

This late 1800s bookplate of Romulus is from an old veterinary reference book.

Got Snow?

Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles

of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be 

seen and appreciated by others.  Every crystal was a masterpiece

of design and not one design was ever repeated.  When a snowflake

melted, that design was forever lost.  Just that much beauty was gone, 

without leaving any record behind. ~ Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1925)

Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley
is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes.

He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet and blackboard in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated.

Bentley removing emulsion from a glass plate.

Bentley was first interested in snow crystals as a teenager on 

his family farm in Vermont.  He tried to draw what he saw through an old microscope given to him by his mother when he was 15.  

Since the flakes and crystals were so complex, Bentley couldn't record them properly before they melted.  He attached a bellows camera to a compound microscope.  After an extensive number of attempts, he finally photographed his first snowflake on January 15, 1885.  As a self-taught scientist and artist, whose singular obsession with the snowflake's infinite variety, his interests extended to how it was formed.

 During Bentley's lifetime, he captured more than 5,000 images of crystals.       

Wilson Bentley (1902)

 Bentley referred to snowflakes as "tiny miracles of beauty" 

and snow crystals as "ice flowers."

 Bentley published an article wherein he argued that 

no two snowflakes were alike.  This concept caught the attention of many

including The Smithsonian, National Geographic, Nature, Popular Science, and Scientific American.

Bentley Snowflake Micrograph (1890)

Wilson Bentley died of pneumonia at his farm in December 1931, after walking six miles in a blizzard.  Shortly before his death, his book, Snow Crystals, was published by McGraw/Hill and is still in print today.

" . . . Bentley was working with crude equipment . . .
But he did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years."

~ Kenneth G. Libbrecht

Despite Bentley's fascinating work that led to significant contributions to science and photography, his name remains largely unknown to the public.  However, in Bentley's hometown of Jerico, Vermont, he is a household name.  A museum is dedicated to his life's work at an old mill that houses approximately 2,000 of his vintage images.  

Click HERE to visit the Wilson Bentley Museum

and his ability to capture "magic."

Snow in Canada

And to think you had your fill with snow this season . . . .

Sandra Boynton's Snowflake

And . . . They're Off!

Photo:  Pat Kane

And Chica is no longer the alternate ~ she was ready to roll!

Track the Stats / Locations of the Mushers as They Go

HERE

At Shipyards Park  this morning, the race 

kicked off in a balmy temperature reading of -38C (-36.4F).  

Team Wild & Free were second out the chute.

Click any of the dayglo booties above to 
watch terrific video scenes from 2014's Quest.

One Thousand Miles - The Yukon Quest

Photo:  Katie Orlinsky
Temps During Race -50C - Winds up to 80kph

It is time, once again, for the Yukon Quest which is celebrating its 31st year. The Quest is a 1,000-mile international sled dog race along an old Gold Rush trail in North America, named from the "highway of the north."  This trek travels what was once known as the Klondike Highway, the route that sled dogs used to deliver mail during the age of the Gold Rush.  Besides transporting the mail, prospectors, adventurers and supply carriers traveled between the gold fields of the Klondike and those in the Alaska interior.

The Quest's route is considered tougher than the 

Super Bowl of sled dog races, the Iditarod.

In 1983, four mushers were sitting in the Bull's Eye Saloon in Fairbanks, talking about sled dog racing and the what-ifs of it following a historical trail. In 1984, twenty-six teams left Fairbanks and over sixteen days, twenty teams arrived in Whitehorse. Sonny Lindner became the first champion, completing the race in just over twelve days.

The Quest alternates start locations each year.  This year, it's Whitehorse's turn to host the 2015 Quest run festivities.  Low temps in the Yukon are expected to approach -40 this weekend, adding an element that has been missing from the Quest's start for several years.   

Celebrations such as "Meet the Mushers" and the Start Banquet took place yesterday, allowing for final team preparation before the start tomorrow morning, February 7, 2015.

Painstaking preparations have been made by many for this race. The Yukon Quest Food Drop occurred on January 24, 2015.  Each musher must decide what supplies will be waiting for them along the trail.  Weeks of sorting dog food, winter gear and equipment are bundled up in 40 pound mesh bags, and dropped off at Summit Logistics in South Fairbanks.  From there, the bags are scattered at checkpoints throughout the race course, offering fresh batches of supplies as the mushers arrive.

The trails are clear (thanks to the Canadian Rangers) 

and the dogs are ready.

Photo:  Wild & Free Mushing

We have been following "Wild & Free" Brent Sass, who drew Bib #2 last night and is sponsored by Braeburn Lodge, home of the "huge" cinnamon bun. The local Braeburn Airport is also known as "Cinnamon Bun Airstrip" because of them.

Born in Excelsior, MN, Brent and his 60 sled dogs are based in Eureka, AK, and is also a wilderness guide, builder of custom cabins, and maintains a rental cabin neighborhood in Alaska's Goldstream Valley.                               

                              Photo:  Katie Orlinsky

The sled dogs are the heart and soul of the Quest, bred from stock that survived and thrived during the Gold Rush era.  No animal on earth can match them for endurance, dedication and ability to perform in the extreme conditions of the North. Vets examine each dog at least six times from pre-race to the finish line.  In addition checkpoints provide vets to monitor each dog's well-being throughout the race, with removal from the competition if necessary.

In the draft horse world, we know "no foot - no horse." 
The same goes in the sled dog world.

Brent Sass's working team players this year are:  Sound, Rosie, Cat, Basin, Heath, Yukon, Braeburn, Bato, Chulo, Neon, Krypton, Merc, Copper, Carbon and as an alternate, Chica. The Alaskan Huskies are a type of mixed breed that is the preferred racing dog choice.

Sass is a fan favorite due to his willingness to assist other mushers at times of need, despite losing time for a potential win.  If a musher receives outside assistance during the run, they will be automatically disqualified; however, mushers can help other mushers. Last year, Brent had to withdraw from the Quest after falling asleep, tumbling from his sled and hitting his head on the surface of a frozen lake 100 miles from the finish line. This year, he's taking precautions against another concussion and will be wearing a helmet.

Dawson City is a mandatory 24-hour layover at the half-way point. We'll be cheering the mushers on and look for Brent to hopefully achieve his first Yukon Quest win. Last year's purse was about 15,000 Pounds Sterling / 20,000 Euros / $22,674 USD, which hardly covers the costs incurred.  But as we know in the draft horse world, we don't compete for the money either.  

Keep up with the Sass adventure on his Facebook page: 

"Wild and Free Mushing."

Terrific video of the start of the Yukon Quest 2013